Trapped in their bedrooms Tatum 14, and 12-year-old Demi-Jade Spence didn't stand a chance as the inferno ripped through the house in Lisle Road, Harton, South Shields.

Their dad, John, 37, was left critically injured with 40% burns trying to save them, and his wife, who also narrowly escaped, needed hospital treatment.

Nine years ago Pam Hammond lost her 16-year-old daughter, Emma Cater in an arson-hit house of horrors. Emma died in the home of her friend, pregnant mum Lisa Dodgson, 25, in Chepstow Road, Scotswood, along with Lisa's daughters Amy Louise and Rosie.

Their killer Alan Ray is serving a minimum 20 years life tariff for the arson attack which claimed their lives on May 14, 1998.

Pam, who married Harry Hammond, the grieving grandad of murdered schoolboy Wesley Neailey, said: "Anita has lost her two angels in a terrible, deliberate fire, just as I lost my daughter, Emma.

"Only a mum who has lost a child in this way can know the pain, and Anita will be so numb she will feel she's on another planet.

"I wanted to tell her how much I feel her suffering, and although she will still be in shock, she will need the comfort from relatives, friends and police liaison officers."

Pam said she still thinks about Emma. "In a tragedy like this, nothing anyone can say really sinks in. There's no such thing as coming to terms with it, it's with you for the rest of your life," she said.

"Anita also has the worry of her husband being seriously injured in hospital. I'm sure people are helping her already, but when and if she needs more, David Hines of the North of England Victims Association has offered Anita and her extended family full support."

After Ray lost an appeal for conviction, Pam said: "He took my daughter's innocent life along with Lisa, who was pregnant, and her two bairns. He should rot in hell."

Ray, then 27, of Armstrong Road, Newcastle, got life at Newcastle Crown Court after he was found guilty on four counts of murder. He poured petrol through the letter box and ignited it as Lisa, her children and Emma slept upstairs.

Police hunting the Spence sisters' killer have revealed an accelerant was used to start the blaze in the early hours of Wednesday, April 4. A 17-year-old youth arrested in connection was released on bail.